A UK Government-sponsored report into the take-up of digital television appears to state the obvious. According to a BBC report, it says the Government must, “inform consumers about the benefits of digital TV” (which are not necessarily best promoted by the current players who want to sell expensive subscriptions) and particularly, “raise awareness of free-to-air services and equipment”, “deliver improved free-to-air public service broadcasting” and “ensure that a cheap free-to-air service is available”.

By chance I have just finished reading a chilling account of the American government response to the massacres in Rwanda in 1994. Roughly speaking it went:

We’re not sure what is going on

We’ll ask them to stop

There’s nothing to be done

Even if we did something it wouldn’t work

It is too late to do anything anyway

The worst of it is that America did its best to ensure nobody else did anything either (for fear that a successful mission by others would make it look bad).
Here’s an example:

A discussion paper on Rwanda, prepared by an official in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and dated May 1, testifies to the nature of official thinking. Regarding issues that might be brought up at the next interagency working group, it stated,
1. Genocide Investigation: Language that calls for an international investigation of human rights abuses and possible violations of the genocide convention. Be Careful. Legal at State was worried about this yesterdayGenocide finding could commit [the U.S. government] to actually “do something.” [Emphasis added.]

The This American Life radio show (which I listen to via the Internet) was more than usually interesting in the most recently Internet broadcast segment, “Them“. All three of the “acts” in the hour-long show were equally excellent in different ways.

In Act One, Jon Ronson, a British journalist/humourist talks of his experiences hanging out with a whacky Muslim extremist in London (who says, among other things, “be careful from homosexuality – it is not good for your tummy”). In Act Two David Sedaris talks about the bizarre (but true!) Christmas customs of the Dutch, and in Act Three there is a touching real life story of how a black man’s life was touched by the kindness of the Newfoundlanders who saved his life during WWII (more on his story is available here).